LAHORE – While admitting sale of fake and substandard drugs in the province, Parliamentary Secretary Health Dr Saeed Elahi has said that the government is adopting measures to curb the menace.
To a supplementary query during Question Hour on Health at the Punjab Assembly floor on Tuesday, he said that drug courts were taking action against those involved in the sale of spurious medicine.  Referring to far less punishment for selling spurious drugs, Dr Saeed Elahi said it was responsibility of the Drug Regulatory Authority to amend law as per the requirements. He said that the federal government had yet to finalise composition of DRA. He said that all the provinces including Punjab were demanding more representation than the federal government which was delaying constitution of DRA. He said the Punjab government constituted a special task force to deal important issues relating to health sector including business of spurious drugs.
Answering a query of PPP legislator Ehsan-ul-Haq Naulathia about legal status of such bodies in the presence of elected representatives, Elahi said this task force had already been dissolved.
Referring to the legal status of task forces, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said that democratically elected governments normally run affairs with the assistance of assembly members and active political workers. He said that the government only provided secretarial services to unelected people.